Insurance Industry Battles Bill Mandating Mental Health Coverage

Sara V. Buckwitz

| August 28, 2002

Insurance Industry Battles Bill Mandating Mental Health
Coverage

Mental health care costs can drain bank accounts just as quickly
as medical bills, yet, legislation 'that would force insurers to
offer the same level of coverage for mental illness as for other
diseases' struggled to pass the House.

Kevin Bogardus writes in The Public I, that 33 states have passed
similar legislation, and that the federal civil service system and
even a reluctant President George W. Bush support the bill.

Nonetheless, the insurance industry fights the legislation by
contributing more than $19 million in hard and soft money in the
2002 election cycle, according to Bogardus.

'Insurance companies make money by covering the healthiest part of
the population,' Dr. Darrel Regier of American Psychiatric
Association told the House subcommittee. 'By offering a poor mental
health benefits program, you discourage those people from signing
on.'

Victims of mental illness are not only stigmatized, but the costs
of their treatment can cause unbearable financial strain.--Sara V. BuckwitzGo there>>